1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a connector technology, and more particularly to an oil pipe connector connected to an oil pipe of gas station for filling a large quantity of oil, making the oil pipeline smooth, and improving the oil filling efficiency.
2. Description of the Related Art
With reference to FIG. 1, a fuel oil storage tank is a standard equipment for present existing gas stations, and the fuel oil storage tank is used for storing fuel oil (such as petroleum) and supplying fuel oil to users who need the fuel oil anytime, and thus it is necessary to refill the fuel oil when the level of fuel oil in the fuel oil storage tank is low. In general, a tanker truck is driven to a location of a gas filling equipment of the fuel oil storage tank for the refill, and the tanker truck 100 has an oil pipe connector 80. During a refill operation, the oil pipe connector 80 is connected to an incoming oil pipe connector 104 of the fuel oil storage tank 103, a switch handle 86 of the oil pipe connector 80 is operated to allow the fuel oil in the tanker truck 100 to pass into the fuel oil storage tank 103 through the oil pipe connector 80 and the incoming oil pipe connector 103.
With reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 for a structure of a conventional oil pipe connector, the oil pipe connector 80 comprises a hollow connector cylinder 81 having an inlet 81A at a front end of the connector cylinder 81, an outlet 81B at a rear end of the connector cylinder 81, and a hollow circular conical shaped connector cap 82 installed in the connector cylinder 81, wherein the connector cap 82 is connected to a slightly rear end at the inlet 81A in the connector cylinder 81 by a fixing rib 83 at the periphery of the connector cap 82, and the connector cap 82 contains a control shaft 90, and the control shaft 90 includes a connecting portion 91 having a positioning shaft 92 passed through a shaft hole 820 of the front end of the connector cap 82, a piston disc 93 at the rear end of the connector cap 82, and a spring 94 installed between the control shaft 90 and the connector cap 82. A switch handle 86 is pivotally coupled to an outer side of the connector cylinder 81 by extending a link shaft 85 therein, and an end of the switch handle 86 is embedded and linked by a positioning pillar 87, and the link shaft 85 is pivotally coupled to a control rod 84, and the control rod 84 is connected at the connecting portion 91. The switch handle 86 is operated to drive the link shaft 85, the control rod 84 and the connecting portion 91, so that the piston disc 93 is displaced to open or close the outlet 81B.
Although the foregoing conventional oil pipe connector 80 can use the piston disc 93 to determine whether or not to pass the fuel oil through the outlet 81B to achieve the effect of controlling the refill. However, the use of the conventional oil pipe connector 80 still has the following drawbacks. In the conventional oil pipe connector 80, the fixing rib 83 of the periphery is used for positioning the connector cap 82, such that when the fuel oil is entered from the inlet 81A into the connector cylinder 81, the fuel oil is blocked by the fixing rib 83 to form a turbulence at the fuel oil refilling position at the inlet 81A and the oil pipe will become unsmooth, and the connector cap 82 is in a circular conical shape, such that the room of the pipeline for filling oil between the connector cap 82 and the connector cylinder 81 becomes narrower to restrict the volume of incoming oil, and thus the efficiency of filling oil cannot be improved effectively. Since the control rod 84 for driving the operation of the connecting portion 91 and the piston disc 93 comes with a design of a straight rod, therefore the displacement of the piston disc 93 is restricted, and when oil is filled, the piston disc 93 cannot have a large displacement to increase the space between the piston disc 93 and the outlet 81B in the pipeline for delivering oil, and thus the efficiency of delivering oil is poor. Overall speaking, the efficiency of using the conventional oil pipe connector extends the filling operation time and incurs a high cost, which is not cost-effective and relatively reduces the overall competitiveness. Therefore, it is an important subject for the related industry to find a way of overcoming the shortcomings of the conventional oil pipe connector.
In view of the foregoing shortcomings of the prior art, the inventor of the present invention conducted extensive researches and experiments, and finally developed a cost-effective oil pipe connector in accordance with the present invention to overcome the shortcomings of the prior art and promote the development of the related industry.